The Hunter's Bane
by Leitbur
Summary: Time has passed since the defeat of Kronos and now a new hero arrives at camp. But does his arrival herald salvation or destruction? Takes place after The Last Olympian.
1. I Rodeo With an Otter

The Hunter's Bane: Chapter 1 - I Rodeo with an Otter

By Leitbur

Disclaimer: I do not own the rights to the Percy Jackson series or any of the characters within it. Rick Riordan does, I am just a humble fan of the series.

Rated T, or PG 13.

Warning: the plot of this story takes place after The Last Olympian, so if you have not read through the series and don't wish to have things spoiled you may wish to stop reading until you have.

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First of all, let me just say that I never asked for any of this. Those adult types that chuckled to themselves and said that life wasn't fair; they didn't have a clue just how right they were. The disturbing thing is that as of late I've started getting used to it, or as used to it as anyone can get under such circumstances.

Anyway, my name's William Hunt, my friends, when I had them anyway, called me Will, but that was years ago. Well technically Hunt isn't my real last name, but then I never knew what that was so this is as good as any other I might have. See, I don't really have a family, not like most people do. My parents, whoever they might have been, died a long time ago, long before I was old enough to remember what they looked like, felt like, smelled like, anything. I'm what people call a product of the system, been moving through foster homes my whole life and let me say that I've built up an impressive record. I've never lasted a year at any one foster home; came close one time when I was seven, they must have been tough skinned since that couple held onto me for almost nine months before demanding my removal.

They say that I'm a problem child, a demon's spawn, proof that the Anti-Christ walks amongst us, you think of an analogy I've probably heard it. Personally I don't see it. Ok, maybe I see it a little, but most of the time it's not my fault, well sort of but that's a long story. How best to explain it… all right, according to Mr. Gibbons, my 3rd Grade elementary school teacher I am a pyromaniac who enjoys setting things on fire. Now this isn't true at all, I mean sure I like fire, who doesn't, but it's not like I carry a matchbox or a lighter on me, it's just that whenever I get really mad, scared, or feel several other strong emotions things just seem to burst into flames… like his Honda Accord.

I'm fourteen years old, those critical development years when a boy starts to become a man or some other nonsense. People talk about moments in life that change everything for a person, well I've had a couple of those and while I could spend… let's say a long time describing all of those moments, it's probably best to go straight to the one that set me on this path.

It was a clear summer's night, I'm pretty sure it was June but by that point exact dates were hard to keep track of most of the time. The forest was alive with the sounds of insects and other nocturnal creatures moving about, but the half-moon shown down through the trees above my campfire helping to illuminate things beyond the glow of the flames. I'd created a makeshift spit and was letting my less than satisfying catch of a cottontail rabbit roast over the warm fire. There were deer in the area, but while catching them wasn't impossible, without a gun or something for long distance it wasn't easy.

If you're wondering why I was in the woods by myself in the middle of the night it wouldn't surprise me, but the answer is a bit complicated. Life up to now has been tough, but up until three years ago that was fine, I'd grown used to being despised, accused of every wrong doing that you could imagine, but at least back then no one really messed with me. Oh my fellow schoolmates had tried in the past, but one thing I'd learned was that whenever I got moved to a new school the trick was to locate the school bully and once he tried to push me around, beat him to a pulp, and if necessary break his arm. A little extreme, maybe, ok it is, but my life was extreme and the peace and quiet of being left alone was worth it. Besides, not having people to bug me meant that the chances were better for me to hold out for at least an entire semester without something or someone around me spontaneously combusting.

I'd actually had hopes back then, my foster home at the time had been pretty good, Travis Hunt and his wife Sharon had been warned about my past but they'd wanted to help me get my life in order, and to be honest after so many years of evil looks and fear from previous foster parents, it was a very pleasant change to be wanted by someone. Sharon had come to the conclusion that I just had a lot of repressed anger from my experiences and had gone to work on teaching me breathing techniques to help me keep my temper in check. She'd also tried to get me to talk about my feelings, you know the ones she felt I was repressing so I could confront and get them out; that part wasn't so enjoyable, but at least I didn't burn anything down. And I'd tried, oh believe me I'd tried harder than any other time in my life to make this work, and I'd been doing remarkably well. In the past the fire had just appeared without warning, and admittedly I wasn't usually too concerned as usually when it happened someone had done something to deserve a little scorching.

But the Hunt's were good to me, and I didn't want to leave and the breathing techniques had helped immensely. Looking back on it I think it also had something to do with my being a bit older too, more in control of myself and my resolve had been steeled to behave. Rumors about my history had gotten around to the other students as it always invariably did, but I'd endured their taunts and harsh treatment for seven months without incident. School was never easy anyway with my dyslexia and ADHD, my grades were abysmal, not that I ever lasted long enough to get final grades. Gym class was my only good subject, I was the king of dodge ball, no one could hit me and being in motion like that left my mind strangely clear.

Travis had come up with his own ideas about how to help me adapt and signed me up for Tai kwon do. His view had been that martial arts could teach me self control and act as an outlet for the anger I felt. Why I couldn't have been sent to the Hunt's sooner I never understood, and the weekend camping trips were a blast. Trekking through the forest of the Midwest United States, fishing the local rivers, the feel of nature around me, it was heavenly, something I'd never really known. Another thing Travis believed in was incentives for good behavior, and if I could last through the school year he'd promised to take me deer hunting, and maybe even let me fire his rifle.

Really I should have known better than to think that it would last, nothing good ever did for me, but I'd given myself over to hoping that my luck had changed and Travis and Sharon had been filled with pride at what they'd called my remarkable progress. The pride was mine too at how well I'd done to keep things under control, and perhaps that's why it had to end.

Let me just say that monsters have very bad timing as they tend to show up when you want them the least. In my case I'd be perfectly happy to never run into them at all, but they seem to like me for some reason. It started with one of the camping trips that Travis and I went on, and as it turned out as well, our last. We'd set up camp near a small creek and Travis had made his way down there to get some water to boil. There was still about an hour or two of sunlight left but the sun had begun its arching turn toward the western horizon meaning that in a short while we'd be roasting hot dogs and marshmallows over the campfire. Travis had given me his cell phone and I was calling Sharon to let her know we'd arrived and set everything up all right. She'd always worried when we'd go out camping, something I'd thought was plain silly of her as it seemed perfectly safe to me; I'd been quite innocent back then.

Travis was making his way back into camp with a pair of buckets filled with water so I'd said my goodbye's to Sharon and hung up to head over and help him bring the water back. We'd just gotten the buckets to the makeshift fire pit we used when camping here when a growl had erupted from the woods. Given the noise I'd thought it had to be a bear, sure they were rare these days but some of them were still out in the woods, and upon hearing that Travis and I had taken one look at each other before he'd gotten up and headed off toward his truck to get his rifle, leaving me standing there with the water buckets at my sides.

Now given my expectations, imagine my surprise when an otter made its way through the trees and into the clearing. Now if you're thinking about a cute little otter like you see on the discovery channel then you're wrong, this thing was the size of a lion or tiger like they have at the zoo, and it was staring straight at me, its teeth bared.

Remember those movies where the action is done in slow motion, everything seeming to happen at half speed, well that's what this moment felt like. The hairs on my arms stood on end, my vision seemed to expand as I began picking up details, the glistening of its pointed teeth, the specks of dried mud spotted on its fur, the slightest movements in the creature's eyes. My brain cleared and sharpened into focus on the beast before me, thoughts catching up to what my gut had already surmised, this… creature, wanted me, was going to kill me unless I killed it first.

A screeching growl echoed from the otter and then it leapt at me, gaining great hang time for something so massive, but when its claws came down where I'd been standing there was nothing there but dirt. The otter whirled, knocking over one of the buckets as it turned to follow my leaping sidestep and lunged for me again with incredible speed. I was faster, and as it leapt passed me I could have easily spanked it on its hindquarters, but it seemed prudent not to antagonize the monster otter that was trying to kill me already. Instead I did something just as futile, I swept up the other bucket of water and splashed the water in the otter's face as it turned again.

I don't know what I was expecting, maybe to hear it scream as it started to melt, but instead all it did was shake its head sending droplets in every direction, growled and charged. This time I leapt up into the air and as it passed under I kicked my foot down into its head. The otter's head buckled under the blow and slammed mouth first into the fire pit as I landed behind it in a crouch. I had no idea how I'd gotten up in the air that high, but at that moment I wasn't exactly contemplating that question as the blow had done nothing more than daze the thing. The real problem was that while it seemed unable to catch me for the moment I had no way to kill it either, nothing reliable anyway. This was just a game of keep away, and that could only go on for so long.

Then as the thing pushed itself back to its feet a shot rang out and struck the creature in the side and I looked over toward the sound's origin to see Travis standing there with his rifle, taking aim to fire another shot. Unfortunately the otter seemed more annoyed by the bullet than injured, and while the good news was that it wasn't after me anymore the bad was that its attention was now on Travis.

My foster dad fired again, striking the otter in the shoulder this time, but again it just seemed to daze the beast, not actually harm it. Shaking off the impact, the otter snarled and then took a step toward Travis.

I don't know why, but the sight of that thing moving toward my armed foster father sent a ripple of anger through me and the next moment I was doing the stupidest thing I could have done. Snatching up a rock in my hand I shouted out, "Hey ugly, over here!" and then charged before it could turn to respond. Leaping at the otter, I landed on its back as my left hand slid around its throat and squeezed, then brought my right hand down hard with the rock, smashing it into the side of the monster's skull.

The beast bucked and twisted, trying to dislodge me as my right hand came down again and again, my left arm sliding this way and that around its neck as I tried to grip its sides with my legs to no real avail. Off to the side I could hear Travis yelling at me to get off and give him a clean shot although I didn't know why, it'd been pretty obvious that the bullets weren't really hurting the thing, although he kept saying he wouldn't miss this time.

At last the otter made a swift spin and turn and my right hand opened as I was spun and nearly thrown off entirely, saved only by my right hand grabbing hold of the beast's slick fur. A squeal filled the air and I took that moment to readjust my grip with both hands as I held on for dear life while the monster flipped me this away and that in an attempt to toss me.

Fear gripped at my mind with its icy fingers, but a fiery resolve swam up to meet it from the core of my being. _I am not going to die, I am not going to die, you hear me, I am _not_ dying!_ The resolve emanated out from every pore in my body, covering me like a warm blanket. As if in answer the otter suddenly screamed in pain, and its bucking became frantic, swinging around the way a person with an ice cube down the back of their shirt might act, except where that person might be screaming in frustration, even irritation, the monster was screaming in agony.

That's when I realized the cause; we were on fire. The flames rolled over my hands, my arms, my whole body and seared through the smoking patches of fur into the creature's skin, the putrid smell of burning animal hair rich in the air around us. My first thought was to let go, to drop and roll to put out the flames before they roasted me alive, but then it hit me that I didn't feel anything, whatever else they might burn, I was immune to the flames.

Emboldened by this discovery I gripped tighter around the otter's neck, my muscles aching as I squeezed, my flaming hands branding the otter's throat and the flames increased until they engulfed us both entirely. At last the otter collapsed down onto the ground, its legs kicking at its sides as if they were trying to escape the funeral pyre that had been their body.

Lying there on the monster's back, submerged in my warm friendly flames I had an epiphany, the kind that alters your life forever. Up until now I'd had no real control over this strange power, I knew I caused it somehow but never had there been any means of harnessing it, the fire would just appear. As I watched the inferno flow through me, surround me, the truth became apparent. I'd been mistaken to think that I was creating the fire, like some magician summoning through incantation, I was the flame. They weren't rolling over me, passing me by to leave me unscathed, they were flowing out of me, the living flame within me.

Sadly my epiphany was cut short by the burning monster I was resting on top of suddenly bursting into a cloud of dust. Coughing as I pulled myself to my feet, brushing at the dust covering my clothes I heard a noise in front of me and lifted my gaze instantly to meet it. Travis stood there twenty feet away, his fingers gripping his rifle so tightly that his knuckles appeared ready to explode out of his hands. That wasn't the scariest part though, it was the look on his face, an expression I'd never seen him use before but had encountered innumerable times. Terror, not at what had just happened although I suspected it was contributing, but terror at what he saw now. Staring across the clearing at me as I stood there immersed in flames, breathing the charcoaled air in like it was a warm summer breeze, a pile of dust that had been a monster otter only moments earlier at my feet, Travis was terrified of me. Given the image, I supposed he had good reason.

The sight was an arrow through my chest, causing me more pain than anything that otter could have done. In fact I'd almost wished for the thing to reappear and skewer me to put me out of my misery. It was over, my time with Mr. and Mrs. Hunt had come to an end, there was no getting passed this, no explanation that would suffice, not that I had an explanation to give. Besides, who wanted to have a living flammable accelerant under their roof?

Taking a deep breath and concentrating hard, I felt the flame shrink back into the core of my chest. Another breath and the flames surrounding me died down, then seemed to dissolve altogether. Finally Travis, his body shaking stuttered out, "W-Will… what… what just happened? How did you… That thing, then you…?"

Making my way slowly off toward the tent where my camping pack sat leaning up against a small tree, careful not to make any sudden movements that might startle Travis into shooting his gun at me, I picked up the pack, slung it over my shoulder and said, "I'm sorry Mr. Hunt, I really am. You and Sharon were the best." With that I'd turned and headed off into the forest leaving my old life behind.

In the three years since then I'd traveled all over the Northern Midwest, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, even went as far East as Pennsylvania one time although that had been a special circumstance. In that time I'd done a lot of thinking about why I'd decided to just leave like that, after all I'd been eleven years old then and trekking around in the woods on my own hardly seemed rational. In the end though I just figured I'd rather be here than back in the system.

Poking at the rabbit with my finger, I gripped the stick the thing hung on and turned it a bit trying to make it cook evenly. Why nothing seemed capable of burning me I didn't know, for that matter I never even felt cold, or at least not the way other people described it. I didn't understand a lot of things, like why I was this way, a lone outcast from the world. In my three year trek I'd never encountered anyone else like me, just more monsters, some more bizarre than others.

Reaching toward my belt I let my fingers run through one of the rings that hung off it to the side, half a dozen teeth and claws dangling on it, trophies of monsters I'd slain. There were two more rings with similar trophies on the left side, and next to those hung my rabbit's foot, taken off a rabbit that had been far bigger and nastier than the one I was currently cooking. Truthfully I'd lost track of how many of these weird things I'd killed over the last few years, but it had to be at least twenty although even that seemed low. As of late I'd been pondering why they kept showing up and after much consideration I was pretty sure that they were hunting me. I hadn't decided just yet what I was going to do about it, but there was a strong part of me that said I should start hunting them back.

Scratching the back of my neck, my thoughts were interrupted by a voice shouting in my head. _Incoming!_ Moments later a flash of blue swooped down from above the tree line and landed on the branch of a fallen oak across the campfire from me.

Sighing as I gazed at the peregrine falcon that had just landed, I shook my head in exasperation. "Always going for the dramatic entrance Ellie, don't you ever get tired of it?"

The falcon shook her dark feathered head. _Nope, and you love me for it_.

I just rolled my eyes. "Love you sure, but not for that."

_Well as long as you love me Will_.

Ellie had been the one bright spot in these last three years, probably the one thing that kept me grounded or else I might have gone monster hunting already. I'd found her about a year and a half ago picking a fight with a rather large snake, as in one almost as wide as me at the time. Why she'd been doing that I didn't know or for that matter why I'd decided to intervene on her behalf, but she'd been keeping me company ever since. At first she'd just flown in circles overhead, following me as I made my way through the forest. I hadn't even noticed until I'd been forced to cross a highway separating the two patches of forest and seen her swoop down lower.

This went on for days with her landing when I set up camp and just staring at me while I tried to go about my routine. Finally I'd blurted out, "Why are you following me?" in frustration only to fall backward when she'd answered in my head. _Because you're interesting._ Having a talking bird for a friend had taken some getting used to, but Ellie was as loyal as any human I'd ever known, more even, and she was quite useful at scouting for food sources or approaching monsters. It was thanks to her that I'd escaped that dragon, or at least I thought that's what it had been, it had breathed fire, not that it was a problem for me, but the teeth that came with the fire had been, and so for the first time Ellie and I had decided running away had been our best option.

More than anything though Ellie listened to everything I had to say. My doubts and frustration about who and what I was, my lot in life, my concerns about the seemingly never-ending supply of monsters pursuing me, worrying about Travis and Sharon, anything I could think of she would listen to and comment on.

Ruffling her dark blue feathers, Ellie watched me for a moment with her black and gold eyes, then lifted her one talon while balancing on the other to reveal the spoils of the night. Glancing up at her as I gave my rabbit another poke, I flicked my head toward her meal. "Looks like you did well, nice… bat?"

Ellie giggled in my head. _Hehe yep. Stupid flying mammals think they can escape me, well I showed them, no creature on land, under the sea or in the air is faster than me._

A grin slid across my face despite myself, Ellie's enthusiasm was always contagious. "I know I know, not even the Gingerbread Man can escape you Ellie."

I wasn't sure how she did it but Ellie scoffed at that remark. _Please, don't be bringing up that stupid fairy tale again. 'You can't catch me, I'm the Gingerbread Man', I'd show him, be on top of that idiotic doughboy before he could blink his little candy eyes._

I just shook my head and laughed. Peregrines were extremely fast creatures and Ellie liked to boast that she was the fastest of them all. That's why she'd found that story so annoying when I'd first told it to her, the idea of being outrun by a cookie seemed to insult her pride, and I loved chiding her about it every now and then. "So would you like me to cook that bat for you or do you want it…" My voice trailed off as Ellie gave me what I'd come to recognize was her version of the evil eye. "Right, raw it is."

Giving the rabbit one last poke, I reached into the campfire and lifted the spit out, then pulled out a bronze knife from my pack and began removing the meat from the bone. The knife was just one of many trinkets I'd picked up along my journey, and my pack currently carried the pair of medium length steel blades I'd traded my last weapon in for. Translation, the monster I'd slain either had a nicer set of weapons than I did, or mine had been bent, broke, or in some other way lost during the fight. These blades in particular I'd taken from a pair of weird snake women in Greek battle armor, a nice prize really. The blades had been their back up weapons as both had carried spears, and while I'd liked the spears just fine they were just too big and bulky to carry around.

It was too bad that my bronze knife wasn't bigger, it seemed especially effective against the monsters I encountered these days, although why that was I had yet to figure out.

We ate in silence, not that it took me very long to pick the rabbit clean, and then I went to my pack and pulled a small mirror along with my toothpick. Actually I should say one of my many toothpicks as I tend to go through them rather quickly. While over the last three years I'd gained a pretty fair degree of understanding and control over my flame one of the side effects has been that flammable things like wood tend to ignite if I concentrate on them for too long. I'd tried plastic toothpicks one time but had quickly discovered that melted plastic does not taste good at all.

Something else that I ought to mention is my eyes, as in they aren't exactly normal. The rest of me, sure I look just like any other kid, light skin, dark hair, ten fingers ten toes, and so on, but my eyes are the exception. I have a condition called central heterochromia, that is my eyes are multi-colored. Over the years I've learned a lot about it, like how the condition itself is more common in animals than humans, or that it's caused by the wrong amount of melanin in the eyes. In my case it results in two different colors in each eye. Thus while my eyes are light green, the inner iris around my pupils are golden-orange, like a ring of flames surrounding a black sun. The doctors always told me it was just a weird fluke of nature, rather like a kid having a big red birthmark on their forehead or something. To me though it was just one more in a collection of things that made me weird, even when some of the kids at school would try to convince me that they were cool.

Staring into them now as I held the mirror up and went to work with my toothpick they seemed to glow in the reflected light of the campfire. I'd tried to explain the condition to Ellie once but she'd had little patience for it. _They are what they are and you are what you are. What does it matter what color or colors your eyes are?_ I'd been forced to admit that she'd had a point.

Finishing up my tooth work just as the sliver of wood ignited, I flicked the pick into the campfire and then stuck my hands into the flames and closed my eyes with a smile. Having never experienced the sensation of being burnt before it was hard to imagine what observers would think of me just sticking my hands into a campfire like this, but for me it felt warm and comforting. Sometimes when the wind would pick up it would tickle just a little bit too like a feather being run across the skin, but the best word for it was refreshing. No matter how tired or exhausted I might feel, the fire made me feel alive.

Withdrawing my hands at last, I looked over at Ellie who was just finishing up her own meal with her usual vigor. Leaning back against my pack and resting my hands behind my head I said, "We should probably make it an early night, I want to see if we can't get the drop on that small herd of deer you spotted earlier today, have a real meal tomorrow. After all I can't just live off…"

A loud roaring scream ripped through the woods interrupting me but I didn't care at the moment as my hands reached back from my head to the handles of the two blades attached to the sides of my pack, my eyes staring off toward the east where the sound had come from. Eternity seemed to pass in silence as even the insect nightlife had gone still, then another scream rang out, this one much different, higher pitched than the first. Along with it were the faint muffled sound of voices.

My eyes gazing fixedly into the wood toward the sound, I sat up fully, bringing the two blades with me as I said, "Ellie."

_On it._ With that she took off into the sky until she was a speck upon the half moon in the sky. Getting to my feet I stepped toward the fire, waiting for word from above. At last it came. _Monsters Will, five of them, and a couple of them are pretty big._ I cursed, just great, so now they were hunting me in groups. _That's not all though,_ Ellie continued, _it looks like they're fighting someone else, a group of humans. It's a battle._

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Author's Notes:

Well that's the end of Chapter One. To those of you who are reading my other story The Never-Ending Road, do not fear, that is my primary story and I will still be devoting as much time to it as I can. This story I am writing because after reading the Percy Jackson series I have found my work nights plagued with this storyline developing before my eyes to a point where it's interfering with my ability to focus on other stories. It is therefore my hope that in writing this out I can purge it from my system and return to my other works. This will be much shorter than TNR, probably closer to twenty chapters when all is said and done.

To those of you who are new to my stories, welcome and I hope you enjoy this. While I cannot give promises on how long a break there might be between chapters I can say that I can write in first person faster than I do in the third person style I use with my other stories. I am only using first person here because the original series was written that way and I am paying homage to it. I will have some terms in later chapters to help any of you through things that might be confusing, although in this style explanations are a bit easier to include in the story. In a sense writing in first person ought to be a nice change and new direction I can push the boundaries of my writing in.

Terms:

Heterochromia: As explained in the chapter this is a condition where a person or animal has two different eye colors. Though rare in humans, the complete form of this condition would have a person with one eye of one color and one eye of another color, such as one brown and one green. Another example would have a part of one eye one color say the right half of an eye while the left is another color. This can be caused either naturally from birth or by a disease or injury such as an object penetrating the eye and leaving behind particles of some type like say rust. As stated in the story it is caused by either a lack or excess of melanin in the eyes, which is responsible for pigmentation.

Feel free to write as long a review as you like, and ask whatever questions you want as long as they do not involve the plot and I will do my best to give you an answer. Also I will be posting this on my yahoo group with the rest of my stories so feel free to join it if you wish, the link is on my profile page. Your patronage is greatly appreciated. R&R


	2. I Have A Death Match With a Dragon

The Hunter's Bane: Chapter 2 – I Have a Death Match with a Dragon

By Leitbur

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Thoughts danced through my head as the information Ellie had just given processed. Monsters were attacking a group of humans, five monsters to be exact; the size of the human group unknown. My first thoughts were ones of relief, they weren't here hunting for me, I could just slip away, find a secure location and hold out there until Ellie said that the coast was clear.

My next thought was less rational but admittedly held a certain amount of appeal. Why should I hide from them, if they were picking on ordinary humans they couldn't be that tough, I could take these creatures easily enough. Taking out five at once, there was a challenge to push my skills to their limits, and besides, it might be fun. Plus I could save those unfortunate people, play the hero for a change, assuming I could get there in time and they weren't more afraid of me than of the monsters.

More than anything else though my curiosity had been piqued by the question of why the monsters had bothered to attack a group of humans anyway. I'd run into humans in my travels from time to time, even in proximity to monsters, and never had the monsters opted to attack the humans, so why now? That was the source of the hope I felt rising in my gut, filling me with a warm possibility; what if these humans were like me, different? The chance that there were others out there like me, that I was not alone, it was a tantalizing thought, to meet people like myself who might have similar experiences, or perhaps even information on just what all this was about. It was too enticing to ignore.

Ellie heard my decision. _North northwest, about a mile, maybe a mile and a half distance._

Slipping the blades neatly in my belt, I glanced up at the stars, spotting Polaris quickly, then took off toward the battle at full speed. Bounding around and between the trees with ease, my sneakers barely touching the ground as I silently navigated the path that was so clear before my eyes. It seemed like only a few moments had passed before I could make out the commotion ahead, although the specifics eluded me. Glancing up I spotted a dark shape sweep past the moonlit sky; Ellie was circling the battlefield.

Spotting a tall oak tree coming up, I braced myself as I leapt into the air, grabbing hold of a thick low branch and swinging around, flipping myself up onto it. Gaining my footing I reached up and grabbed another branch, climbing quickly up until I was a good twenty-five feet above the forest floor. Crouching on the branch, I pushed aside a cluster of thick green leaves and gazed down at the battle below.

It was not what I had expected at all, the humans appeared to be holding the monsters at bay. It was strange to hear myself referring to humans that way as if I was not human, when had I started doing that I wonder? Perhaps Ellie's words were rubbing off on me.

Anyway, scanning the clearing I spotted two fairly fixed positions, the five monsters were bunched together near a small yet quick flowing creek. A pair of giant sized men with six arms, wearing old fashioned bronze armor in stood in front, each holding a pair of massive shields in position to block any attack with their middle arms, a pair of spears in their upper hands, and swords in the lower. Behind them one of those weird snake women stood, a shield raised in her hand as well, a two pronged bronze spear in the other, and beside her stood a pretty girl with flaming red hair in a red spaghetti strapped cocktail dress, a short thin blade in her right hand. If not for her crimson eyes it would have been easy to mistake her for a human heading out on the town, but even without them there was something that just felt off about her. I didn't see the fifth one though, or at least not at first, but then a massive bird-shaped creature with a pale face swooped down over the battlefield.

I'd never encountered a flying monster before and while a part of me trembled in excitement at the chance for a new first, my first flying monster kill, part of me realized that I didn't have much in my arsenal that could hit a flying target. The same could not be said for the other group of combatants who were positioned at the edge of the tree line, spread out in a crescent. I counted fourteen young girls who appeared to range between ten and sixteen years of age, all wearing silver windbreaker jackets, jeans, and a pair of black boots. Each was armed with a bow and were firing volley after volley of arrows that seemed to glow silver, like strips of deadly moonlight, toward the pinned monsters. I realized quickly that the giants had feathered shafts lodged here and there like tiny toothpicks. One of the girls however was different, her spiky black hair had some type of silver jewelry in it, and instead of a silver windbreaker she wore a black leather jacket.

Off to the side behind a large overturned tree four more figures cowered down, two girls who looked twelve to thirteen years old, one with dark hair the other a light shade of brown, and a boy who was maybe my age although it was hard to tell for sure. He had bleach blonde hair and looked quite fragile for his sex, but than again not everyone was into outdoor activities I suppose. Then there was the final boy who looked the oldest, at least he had a bit of hair on his chin, a bright red baseball cap that screamed 'here I am, come kill me' on his head. However something was off, and then I saw it; while he was dressed like any other person, his shoes had been discarded and where there should have been feet there were hooves. A monster? That didn't seem quite right, particularly because the way they were huddled it looked like he was trying to keep the other three out of harm's way.

_Pretty awesome sight huh Will_.

Frowning at Ellie's remark, I shook my head as I watched the snake girl get struck by an arrow and explode into dust. So much for my coming to the rescue, these girls did not need my help, well unless they ran out of arrows. Still, they looked to be quite capable, their movements coordinated as if they did this sort of thing all the time.

Keeping my focus on the monster's line, I watched the crimson-eyed girl scowl before shouting, "We have to retreat!"

"No," one of the six armed giants bellowed back, "Run bad, Hunters chase. Fight now, kill hunters!"

Ducking down as an arrow just missed her head, the girl frowned in disgust and answered, "Well you can do that all you want, but I'd rather not burst into dust tonight thank you very much. If you want to stay and get killed, go ahead, I'm getting out while I still can."

However, given how she then crouched down behind the giant's leg, scanning the outskirts of the clearing desperately it appeared that she was realizing what was fairly obvious to me or any other onlooker; there was no place to escape to. The moment she took off and left the cover of the giants she'd be riddled with arrows, and given the grins on the faces of several of the Hunters, they knew it too. Her only hope was to create a distraction of some kind, draw the Hunters' attention elsewhere while she made her escape, but I doubted it would work, these Hunters seemed far too disciplined.

Hunters, I let the word work its way through my thoughts. So that's what these girls were, a hunting party of some kind, apparently an all female party given the lack of boys, and unless I was much mistaken their prey was monsters. If that was true though, if they really did hunt down monsters, then it also seemed likely that these girls were like me, different in whatever manner of way we were, capable of doing more than the average human. Still, it was a mystery why they weren't using fire to pin down the enemy position even more, it was certainly what I'd have done. Than again it was possible I supposed that none of them could wield fire the way I did, a troublesome thought, but one that suggested other abilities beyond my own as well. One thing though was clear, these people had at least some of the answers that I sought; and once this battle ended I intended to ask for them.

Then off to the west a loud roar pierced its way through the clearing, causing my eardrums to throb for a moment as the air itself seemed to shudder from the ferocity of the noise. Below the battle paused as both sides looked about for the source of the sudden commotion, a look of concern especially apparent on the Hunters' faces. The roar ripped through the air once more, this time much louder and closer than before and I groaned as recognition came to me. Wonderful, my old dragon friend had found us.

Gazing off to the west I watched as the tree-line began to rustle, then split open to reveal the immense reptile, it's serpentine eyes golden in the moonlight. I was no expert on dragons, and had only ever encountered one before, but given that its scales were as black as night yet smooth and shiny, reflecting the moonlight like so many thousand little ponds, not to mention its slight build for something of its size, I was fairly certain it was indeed the dragon I'd encountered before.

Bracing myself on the branch more securely, I watched on as the Hunter's shifted formation, turning to make the dragon their top priority. A couple of them seemed to be off a step or two, either unnerved or inexperienced with such things, but in no time new streaks of moonlight shot through the air at the new threat. Unfortunately the arrows merely bounced off the creature's armored hide, the scales acting like overlapping shields against the assault. Whether the dragon could feel the impacts or not I didn't know, but regardless it turned toward the Hunters and let out a stream of flame that jetted along the tree-line, causing the Hunter's to scatter.

Standing tall before the flames, the girl with the leather jacket and silver hair piece began barking out orders, a shield that hadn't been there before now fastened to her arm. Raising the shield, the dragon recoiled for a moment much to my surprise, then spit another burst of fire in her direction. Diving out of the way, the girl rolled onto one knee, then reached for some sort of canister which quickly expanded into a spear. Frankly it was a bit intimidating, but at the same time very cool and I found myself a bit envious, my own gear didn't have anything nearly as handy.

Shifting to follow her, the dragon's tail whipped around, slicing through a tree as if it weren't even there, the severed trunk falling to the ground as a pair of Hunters dove out of the way to avoid it. The quartet of monsters meanwhile appeared to be recovering from their momentary shock at their change in fortunes, and with some sort of unintelligible cry the giants began to advance, weapons at the ready.

This was so not good, if the Hunters were driven off or worse crushed then not only would I not get the answers I desired but it was likely I'd end up having to take on this group myself or else flee very quickly. The dragon was going to be a pain on its own, but the other group would only complicate things if they got involved, that couldn't be allowed. Taking a deep breath, I braced myself, one hand reaching for one of my two short blades; I was going to have to enter the fight.

Concentrating hard, I felt the flame within me begin to flex and expand, it took a great amount of willpower to reign it in. I'd had three years of practice and experience in life or death battles to hone my control over my abilities, but the major advantage all those times was that it had just been me, I didn't have to worry so much about precision. This battlefield was different, it was a complex web of combatants that were soon about to be intermingled, and while my allies were unaware of my presence harming them in the process was not the best way to make friends, and I was out of practice in that area as it was.

Focusing my thoughts, I let the flame within me reach out like a scalpel, striking across quickly on a fine edge. Out on the battlefield a wall of flames leapt up in front of the charging giants, quickly swinging around to engulf them in a ring of fire. Startled by the sudden eruption, the giants attempted to stop themselves short and lost their balance, falling forward to the ground, the lead giant crashing into the fire wall from the shoulders up. Shrieks of agony echoed through the clearing as the likewise startled Hunters turned to view the flaming barrier, confusion prominent on their faces.

The dragon however gave it no thought however as it took advantage of the momentary distraction to pounce, its head diving down in a flash toward one of the Hunters, catching her off guard by the waist with its knife-like teeth. Screaming as the beast lifted her into the air, the girl flailed her arms helplessly as the dragon bit down hard with a horrible crunch and the screaming ceased.

"Candice!" the spiky-haired girl screamed in horror, an expression of sadness mixed with anger growing on her face. Then she charged, spear in hand, shield raised and ready.

Recoiling again, the dragon dropped the dead girl's body, or what was left of it anyway, and then swung one of its four clawed front arms at the girl who ducked under it and launched her spear toward the creature's underbelly. For a moment I was certain she'd struck the killing blow, so powerful and well placed the blow had seemed, but then that too bounced off its scaled skin. Cursing, the girl retreated back several steps, then jumped back another few as the beast clawed at her again. "Aim for the eyes and mouth!" she commanded, and immediately her new strategy became apparent; those were the only places it didn't have those steely scales.

Arrows sprang out from the woods at the monster's head, but seeming to sense the new strategy, the dragon's eyes and mouth clenched and swung away from the incoming attack, its tail lashing out in the direction of the attack.

"Come on you ugly brute, come and get me I'm right here!" The spiky-haired girl was taunting the dragon now, trying to draw its attention away from the other Hunters, and I had to admit her courage was impressive to say the least. The taunting worked as the dragon shifted toward her again, its mouth shooting down to strike as it had done before. The girl was ready for it though and drawing a hunting knife flung it at the beast as she leapt backward, the blade flying toward the open cavity of the dragon's mouth and embedding itself in the creature's gum between a pair of teeth.

Cursing again, the girl continued to dodge as the dragon pressed on with a yelp of pain, swiping with its claws this time.

"Thalia look out!"

Thalia turned her head just in time to see the dragon's tail coming around clipping her chest and sending her flying through the air across the clearing toward where I was concealed. Sitting up slowly Thalia shook her head wearily and glanced up as the dragon loomed over her, its head raised as it inhaled.

As it did so I went airborne, landing softly on the dewy night grass, my worn out sneakers sliding slightly as I sprinted off at top speed toward Thalia. Grabbing hold of her shoulders as the dragon's mouth opened, Thalia's head turned back toward me and for a brief moment our eyes locked, her electric blue eyes filled with surprise. Then the moment was over as I flung her out of the way, my body turning instinctually toward my new foe as fire ripped from the beast's lips engulfing me in their burning intensity.

A few things I should mention about dragon fire, the first being that it's extremely hot, far hotter than any other fire I have felt. Not that such extreme temperatures bother me, but it was still quite noticeable. The other thing about it is that it's completely heartless, dead almost. What I mean by that is that unlike say a campfire that carries with it a sense of comfort or a torch with its light, there was no kindness in this flame, it sought nothing but destruction, like an agent of death.

Standing in the heart of the inferno, I gazed up at the opened maw of the dragon's mouth, its flaming breath surging at me like liquid heat, the blast from a fireman's hose. Moving my gaze to Thalia to make sure she was clear, I watched as she rose to her feet, terror mixed with shock on her face as she stared back at me, her left hand partly raised to ward off the heat and light. She then screamed out, "WHY!?" and drew her bow at the dragon. Apparently she couldn't see me through the intensity of the flames, or at least make out that I was unharmed.

Closing its mouth at the sound of her battle cry, the beast turned its gaze at Thalia again, leaving me standing in a large pyre, the ground below me a lifeless black ash. The beast's cold eyes were sharp and hungry, escape wouldn't be easy under normal circumstances, but the burning determination and hatred in Thalia's eyes, which seemed to flash with electricity, said that escape was impossible, because only death was going to stop her. Damn, that left only one choice, I was going to have to fight this thing.

Gripping the hilts of my two blades firmly, I took a deep, smoke-filled breath and dashed out of the flames as Thalia released her shot as she muttered something under her breath. To my surprise the arrow shot home, striking the beast in the left eye, causing it to roar in pain, its head reeling back. Drawing my blades, I paused for a moment as I passed out of the bonfire behind me, caught off guard by the hit Thalia had landed. My emergence from the fire had not gone unnoticed by the young Hunter who turned toward me arrow already notched as if she expected some new threat. Then she lowered her bow ever so slightly, a look of incredulous disbelief on her face as I shouted, "Get back, find cover! I'll keep it occupied!"

Maybe it was my desire to impress her, or more likely simply a moment of complete stupidity, but that's when I charged head on at the dragon, exhilaration flowing through my veins. It was strange, usually after erecting and maintaining a wall of fire my body would feel fatigued, slightly sluggish at the strain of the act, and the lifeless flame of the dragon had done nothing to refresh me. Yet instead I felt completely invigorated and alive, as full of energy and power as if I hadn't used my abilities in a week.

Sprinting up toward the still wailing dragon, I leapt up and landed on the bent knee of its front arm and then bounded off just as quick, launching myself up into the air where I spun around, slashing my left blade around into the creature's exposed throat.

Clang!

Up until that moment I'd probably looked very cool, heroic even, but as my steel blade bounced off the monster's skin like a rubber ball striking a brick wall, my balance faltered as my momentum fought against the new direction my upper body now found itself moving. In desperation I kicked out and struck the dragon's neck, sending me falling back away from my armored opponent. Then my peripheral vision caught sight of a slashing clawed hand moving up toward me, the dragon apparently feeling my strike and swatting at the pest out of instinct. Twisting in midair, I brought my blades down together and slammed them down onto the creature's top finger, pushing down with all my strength and lifting myself just barely over its hand.

Exhaling as I hit the ground in a crouch, I immediately leapt back as the dragon's clawed front foot slammed down where I had just been. Worst still, enough time had elapsed for the beast to recover and return its attention to the pest on hand; me. Slamming its foot down at me again, I jumped back once more than dodged to the right, trying to make my way around to its right side where its vision was now impaired with limited success. It was like being back in gym class playing dodge ball, except this time I was dodging claws, stomping feet, fangs capable of slicing me in half, and occasionally its blade-like tail.

Arrows rained in on the dragon from the tree line, bouncing harmlessly off the creature's skin as my blade had, the only problem being that the falling arrows were landing all over, including near me, making it just one more thing to dodge. My antics had given the Hunters time to regroup which was good, but apparently they'd devised a new plan, one that used me as the bait.

Not that I hadn't asked for it, in truth thinking back on my words to Thalia I could see how it might have sounded as if I had volunteered for this less than desirable job. Fine, it was just another challenge to overcome.

Twisting out of the way of a falling arrow and sidestepping another crushing foot, my eyes caught a glimpse of something large descending sharply from the sky and my brow contorted in vexation. I'd forgotten about that giant bird monster, and this was a bad time for it to attack given how much attention I was forced to give to avoiding become dragon chow. But the monster didn't attack, instead it landed within the flame wall and a few moments later emerged again, the hot redheaded woman on its back, leaving the one remaining giant standing there with a scowl on his face. It appeared the girl had found her distraction and made good her escape.

Speaking of distractions, let me say that it isn't smart to watch a cute girl fly off on a giant bird while fighting an angry dragon. Suddenly my body recoiled as something hard and sharp struck my gut, driving me back onto the smoldering ground behind me. Gripping my gut, I felt the warm wetness of my own blood, the hilt of my right blade stained red by it, but my eyes were focused above me. Having dropped me with the blow from its tail the dragon paused for a moment, glaring down at me with its one good eye. Then its head darted down, mouth open ready to send me on a one-way trip into its stomach.

Instinct kicked in and I rolled away, lifting my right blade up in an attempt to slash its exposed mouth. As the blade struck my arm jerked back nearly dislocating my shoulder in the process, the blade lodged in the side of the dragon's jaw. Without warning the blade came free, a metallic crunching sound echoing in my ears, and pulling myself to one knee I gazed down at my right blade, or at least the few inches of it that remained.

Wincing in pain as I willed myself onto my feet, fighting the pain all the way, I looked up as the dragon prepared to lunge at me again, the glint of its teeth marred by the protrusion of my broken blade. Great, now what was I going to do? As if in answer a screech shot through the air and from above a dark blue flash bolted down from the sky like a rocket, a familiar voice screaming in my head.

_Stupid lizard, how dare you hurt my Will! Taste talon you one-eyed salamander, your mother wears pig-skinned army boots!_

Ellie slammed into the side of the dragon's face, her talons scratching along its cheek as she fluttered back and forth, trying to find a weak spot. Snarling at the sudden fly darting in its face, the dragon lunged out trying to catch Ellie in its jaws, which Ellie dodged with ease.

_Missed me, oh missed again. Come on, I've seen cows with quicker reflexes, whew and better hygiene too skunk breath! Ooh, too slow, and … tag you're it peanut brain!_

At the end there I even thought I heard her say, 'hehe, can't catch me' and while normally I'd mock her for it, at the moment I was too happy to see my winged friend. Just then a burst of flame erupted from the dragon's mouth, nearly roasting Ellie, who had barely dodged it, in the process.

Rage fueled my spirit as flames erupted around me; no one was going to barbecue my best friend. Lifting my hand up, my pain momentarily forgotten, I concentrated as a pillar of flame burst up from my hand, smacking into the side of the dragon's face. "Hey ugly, you forget someone!?"

Ok, probably not the brightest decision I'd ever made, but it did have the benefit of working, the dragon snarled and dove its head down at me, the arrow in its eye flickering like a birthday candle now. Diving out of the way and rolling to my feet, I scampered back as Ellie disengaged, a volley of arrows striking the dragon where she had just been. My breath getting heavier, I spotted the splotches of blood along the ground, I had to end this fast, I just didn't know how. The problem was that I just didn't have the range to get at the creature's weak spots, and trying to climb up onto its head was foolish at best, suicidal at worst. But what other choice did I have?

Bracing myself for the upcoming charge, my foot brushed something solid on the ground, and glancing down reflexively I spotted the remains of the fallen Hunter, Candice, and laying next to her was her bow.

It was crazy, I'd never even held a bow before let alone shot one, but in that instant my hand seemed to react on its own, dropping my other blade and reaching down and swiping the bow up even as I began to jump back again from another swipe by the dragon's clawed hand. More arrows poured in on the beast, ricocheting about, one embedding itself in the ground at my feet. Pulling it from the ground, my eyes surveyed the dent in the notched arrowhead, and the next thing I knew the arrow sat in its place upon the bowstring.

Roaring as its foot stomped down at me, the dragon charged forward as I leapt back, its tail swinging around trying to pick me off in midair. Instead I brought my legs up in an aerial crouch and kicked off as the tail swung below me, catapulting me up into the air. The strangest sense of calm came over me and time slowed down again, making me feel weightless as if I was hanging in the air. The dragon's mouth opened as it prepared to spit fire, and my right hand gripped the bowstring, my index finger relaxed just above the arrow, my middle and ring finger below, my wrist locked straight as I pulled the string back effortlessly. My eyes came into complete focus and seemed to zooming in like binoculars, the tiniest detail of the creature's throat as apparent as if I was inches away. As my eyes locked onto a single point within the dragon's throat the tip of the arrowhead flared a bright reddish-orange, like the end of a red-hot poker, expanding back until the entire arrow glowed.

Only then did I release the string, the arrow launching out like a guided missile. Time returned to normal and I felt myself falling back toward the earth, landing in a crouch, gasping as my stomach erupted in pain once more. Above me a loud, bellowing cry let out, and looking up I saw the dragon wailing, its head flipping about, fire bursting out from its mouth completely uncontrolled. Its head turned down setting the ground ablaze, then over toward the wall of fire, piercing the wall as if they were paper and blasting the helpless giant back, his own screams added to those of the dragon's as he burst into flames.

Suddenly as the dragon lifted its head once more fire burst out of its eye sockets, then its nose, streaming up toward the moon before finally going out as the dragon collapsed onto the ground, its scales shifting into a black fog to reveal its charred skeleton underneath.

Relief filled my thoughts, and with it the wall of fire I had been maintaining fell down until it was just a smoldering ember. Moving down onto my knees, I exhaled heavily, trying to dull the pain of my wound, the forest around me silent save for the light crackling of dragon's fire here and there.

In unison the Hunters emerged from the woods into the clearing, their focus all on me, although one or two glanced between myself and the dragon's remains. Bewilderment and curiosity covered many of their faces, although numerous others glared at me with dagger eyes of hate. Then there was one, a young girl with long heavily braided purple-black hair, she watched me with complete shock and fear. As a group they then halted about ten feet away forming a semi circle around me, and after pausing a moment the one I knew as Thalia continued forward, her eyes watching me quizzically.

As she reached me Thalia gazed down at me and said, "Who are you?"

Wincing, I began, "I'm-" and then my voice broke at the pain once more. I couldn't stay like this, I had to get back, I needed…

"You're wounded…" Thalia continued, as if just now noticing the pool of blood forming below me. Kneeling next to me, she muttered 'gods', then turned to look at her companions and shouted, "Renee, come here, we need a healer!"

A Hunter with short brown hair fidgeted slightly, glancing around at her fellow Hunters, then took a step forward.

"Wait." Another girl stepped forward, her hand raised at Renee. The girl had shoulder length dark hair and violet eyes, and didn't appear to be more than my age. Still, there was something in the way she glared at me that said she'd been around for a lot longer than that. Shifting her gaze to Thalia, the girl continued, "Thalia, thou know the rules. He's a boy, he's not permitted in our camp. We should leave him."

Standing up, Thalia turned to fully face the girl and replied, "He saved my life Melanie, and who knows how many more of us by slaying that dragon. We help him." The way she said it, as if it were final, the authority her voice commanded was amazing.

Even Melanie seemed to hesitate a moment, but she quickly found herself. "And what about Candice? Not only did he take her bow, but it was he who distracted her. Does thou deny that he caused the fire to erupt?"

I had to admit I was getting tired of this girl talking about me as if I was some pest that needed to be exterminated. I'd seen that look before, the hatred in the eyes of so many people in my time, to see it again after what had just happened… it was infuriating.

Shakily rising to my feet, I glared back at Melanie, doing my best to breathe evenly. Thalia tried to stop me, but I waved her off. Some part of my mind registered that the pace of dripping of my blood had increased, but I ignored it, my focus was solely on Melanie. Pulling myself fully upright, I said, "Hey, I don't know who you are or what your problem is with me, and really I don't care all that much. What I do know is that I saved your life and nearly got killed in the process."

Melanie looked at me as if I were the most disgusting thing she had ever seen. "We did not ask for thy help boy." The ways she said 'boy', as if the word itself were a curse word. "We would have dealt with the beast on our own."

The way she spoke, there was the trace of some sort of accent that I couldn't place, but it certainly sounded old fashioned. "Look lady," I continued, "I don't have a problem with you or your… Hunters, but I saw what was happening and you needed help." I groaned as another wave of pain coursed up my spine. The way she continued to glare at me, the anger just continued to build. "I don't want to fight you, but there's no way I'll let you kill me either."

At those words my left hand began to glow, a low flame simmering on the surface of my skin. "So, if you wish to burn, step forward. Otherwise back off!"

I know, it was childish of me, but I wasn't all that interested in dying of blood loss while they argued over whether or not to save me.

Melanie surveyed me for a moment, a sliver of a grin sliding across her lips and I could tell that she was game for a fight. Thalia however seemed to notice it too, and stepped between us, her focus on Melanie.

"Thalia, what is going on here?"

The voice came from behind me, and I watched as the girls shifted their gaze and eyes widened, several dropping to their knees and muttering, "My Lady."

A sense of relief spread over Thalia's face, although I could also see a hint of worry, as if she wasn't sure what would happen now. Yet she too bowed her head and said, "My Lady."

Inhaling as the glow of my hand died away, I turned around slowly to face the new arrival and found myself frozen in shock by what I saw. The girl was young, no more than twelve years old with long auburn hair worn back in a ponytail, her eyes the color of moonlight. There was some sort of glow about her, one that suggested that while her form was exceedingly beautiful it was also forbidden for anyone to think such things. She had been opening her mouth to speak, but as I'd turned her eyes had focused in on me and stopped her in her tracks as well, her mouth slightly open as an expression of complete surprise, dread, and confusion sprang upon her face. It was as if she had seen a ghost.

It was difficult to consider that however as I found myself mesmerized by her eyes, so infinitely deep as if they'd seen all the world had to offer and come out reborn, eyes that could see through to a person's soul, and I suddenly felt as if my whole life were being laid bare to this girl. At last I returned my gaze to the rest of her, and before my eyes she seemed to age several years until she was more my age, perhaps even older. The way she stared at me, it was as if there was no one else here but us, all other onlookers were intruders. Finally she said softly, more to herself than anything, "It… cannot be."

What she meant by that I didn't know, but her expression had slowly morphed from shock into wonder. At last I said, "Who are you?"

The sound of my voice snapped her out of her trance-like gaze, as if some spell had been broken and we were back in the clearing. Around me several girls hissed at my question, but Thalia merely moved passed me to stand next to the young girl. "My Lady, this one, he saved my life from that dragon. I had been careless and… he saved me. He was the one who slew the monster as well. Please, we must help him, he…"

Her voice trailed off as she returned her gaze to me, concern on her face. Why this girl was so different from the others assembled here I didn't know, but she truly wanted to help me; it was something I had not felt from another person in a long time.

Off to my left the girl with the purplish hair shifted uneasily, and turning to look at her I noticed her shrink back from me ever so slightly. Spotting this as well, the new girl gave a reassuring smile and said, "Fear not Opis, this boy will not harm you." Turning her gaze back onto me, she then continued, "As for your question, I am Artemis."

I blinked. "As in, the god?"

"Goddess." Thalia corrected.

My head began to spin, I was standing in the presence of a Greek god, at least I think it was from Greek mythology. It sounded absurd, but than again my whole life seemed just as absurd. If this girl was a goddess, and admittedly she seemed rather small for what I imagined a goddess would look like, then the other things in my life suddenly didn't seem so crazy. After all, I was already certain that monsters were real, so why not gods too. But as much of an answer as that might be, it opened up a whole lot more questions.

As if she sensed the acceptance of her answer, Artemis then said, "Now, what is your name boy?"

"William Hunt." I answered with slight strain. In all the sudden commotion I'd forgotten about my injuries.

At the sound of my name Artemis smiled, and I swore I heard what sounded like the slightest of giggles escape her lips, as if she found my name amusing. As Artemis opened her mouth to speak again a high pitched cry echoed in the night sky and I gazed up to watch Ellie swoop down, fluttering above me for a moment, then settling down on my right shoulder, her gaze fixed on the goddess.

I held myself up for a moment, then my right knee buckled slightly, and Ellie fluttered up slightly as I fought to right myself. Only then did she settle onto my shoulder again. _What do you think you're pulling Will, I am _not_ fat or heavy._

I chuckled despite myself. "No, you only eat fat bats."

_Hey!_

Artemis laughed slightly, then took in the new image before her as Ellie and I returned our attention to her. While I doubted the two of us could take on a god if this turned badly, especially in my current condition, but having Ellie at my side was very comforting. There was a minute of silence as if silent words were being spoken across the distance between us, and then Artemis turned to Thalia and said, "Lieutenant, raise the tents, we'll stay here for the night I think. Prepare a shroud for Candice, we will honor her sacrifice, and treat the wounded… including him. " She nodded her head toward me.

Melanie stepped forward. "My Lady I…" but Artemis raised her hand and Melanie cut herself short, stepping back slowly.

Thalia smiled and nodded. "Thank you my Lady, at once."

Returning her gaze to me as the rest of the Hunters moved away to set up camp, Artemis continued, "William Hunt, I thank you for saving my lieutenant. I have many questions for you still, but first we will attend to your injuries. However, I would like to know who your parents are?"

My brow contorted, what sort of question was that? "I don't know… your Highness." I wasn't sure how one addressed a god. "I've never met them, I've been in foster care my whole life."

Now Artemis's brow contorted as if she suspected I was lying. Yet after a moment she relaxed and said, "I see, this is most disturbing." She then turned and said, "Satyr, you and your charges may join us also, help bring William here to the camp." She then turned and made her way off toward the camp, a troubled expression on her face.

I hadn't realized until then that the four others I had spotted hiding before had come out to join us. Had they been there the whole time? The goat-legged boy who I assumed must be the satyr Artemis had addressed stepped forward excitedly. "Of course Lady Artemis, as you wish." He then turned and looked at me a bit apprehensively, as if he thought I might bite off his head. I really wasn't all that sure about him myself, after all I'd encountered monsters just as strange looking as him, but I tried my best to give him a reassuring smile.

Appearing to take my encouragement correctly, the satyr made his way over and said, "My name's Nicholas by the way, Nicholas Briar. You can call me Nick."

I nodded as Ellie took off from my shoulder and made her way over toward where the Hunters were setting up camp. "William Hunt." I answered, placing my arm on his shoulder for support. I half expected the three others to come and help Nicholas out, but they just followed behind as the two of us slowly made our way toward the camp. As we walked I looked over at Nicholas, his red baseball cap hanging off to the side to reveal a small horn sticking up just out of his hair. Then a question hit me. "Nick," I strained out, "um, why did Artemis ask about my parents?"

Glancing at me out of the corner of his eye, Nicholas replied, "How old are you?"

"Fourteen, but what does that…" my voice trailed off, Nicholas's face had the same troubled expression that Artemis had.

Finally he replied, "You're a half blood, just like the other three with me back there."

I glanced back at the boy and two girls, they didn't seem much like me, except perhaps being close in age. "What's a half blood?" I had a feeling I wasn't going to like the answer.

"It means one of you parents is mortal, the other is a god."

My head went spinning slightly at that. "A god, you mean like Artemis?"

"Lady Artemis is a maiden goddess, and thus has no children, but yes, one of the other gods like her."

There were a lot of things that flashed through my mind just then, part of me wanted to call Nicholas a liar, or check to see if he'd been drinking. Another part of me felt relieved at finally having something resembling an answer as to why I was so different from everyone else, but one thought dominated over all the rest. "Are you telling me that my parents are alive?"

Nicholas grunted in discomfort. "Well I don't know about your mortal parent, but yes, on the god side he or she is most certainly alive."

Anger began to swell up in me at the idea that one of my parents was still out there, a god no less. I had suffered through foster home after foster home, been tossed aside as a troublemaker and an outcast, survived on my own in the woods for the last three years and all the while my mother or father was out there, knew about me, and had done nothing about it? Nicholas grunted again and suddenly I realized why, I was getting very close to igniting. Remembering to breathe, I tried to calm myself, to keep my support from turning into a smoldering pile of ashes. Suddenly I was struck by a sense of light-headedness, my blood loss must have been worse than I'd thought.

Sagging slightly, I felt Nicholas struggle under the extra weight I'd suddenly forced him to bear, then glancing up I smiled. "Campfire." I muttered.

Nicholas looked forward and nodded. "Right, lets get you there and warmed up, the Hunters can patch you up from there. Kyle give me a hand."

Begrudgingly, the blonde boy behind us made his way forward and lifted my other arm. He seemed to be trying to touch me as little as possible. The sound of a scoff came from behind us and then one of the girls stormed up from behind and shoved Kyle in the chest. "Honestly Kyle, you are so pathetic!" Turning toward Nicholas and I the girl smiled and then slung my arm around her small neck, holding me up with some strain. Still, she continued to smile at me.

Smiling back at her, I nodded my head slightly. "Thanks."

She nodded back. "No problem, when you travel with Kyle you get used to it, he's completely useless." Taking another breath I began to study her more closely. She had light brown hair that ran a third of the way down her back, a flower resting off to one side of it, and eyes the same shade of brown as her hair, perhaps slightly lighter, almond almost but not quite. She had a slim figure, and her skin was tanned as if she spent a lot of time outdoors. All in all, she was rather cute for her age.

"You have pretty eyes." She said, catching me off guard. I'd heard this before, but it seemed a strange place to be hearing it again.

"Um, thanks."

Her cheeks reddened slightly. "It's hard to see the rest of your face, but your eyes, it's like they're glowing, like…" She seemed to be searching for the right word.

"Fire?" I offered.

"Yeah, like in a fireplace, warm and bright."

I didn't know about that, and she was certainly the only one who had ever made that analogy. Most people said they looked like miniature suns or some other weird comparison. "What do you mean it's hard to see my face, I can see you just fine."

Her eyes narrowed quizzically. "It's so dark out, your face is like a shadow."

Confusion covered my face, and I glanced around me at the trees, the bushes between them, back at the dragon's skeleton, even ahead at the fast approaching camp; it was all quite clear to me. Was it really so dark? "Everything looks fine to me."

The girl grimaced. "Well I can't! Can you… see in the dark?"

Honestly I'd never thought about it. It was like a blind man saying to someone, "You mean you can see in the daylight." I never had a reason to consider it, I'd always assumed everyone saw as I did, that they defined dark the same way I did. I just shrugged. "Wow," she replied, sounding quite impressed, "I was wrong, your eyes, they're like flash lights!" This was an even weirder analogy. Turning my head back in front of me I saw we were closing in on the campfire, tents had begun to spring up around us, several girls were already sitting around it being treated for minor wounds. As we stepped into the light of the fire the girl whispered in my ear, "By the way, I'm Chloe."

I turned as we came to a halt a few feet away and nodded to her, then gave her a reassuring smile that she returned. "I'm Will."

At those words I released myself from her and Nicholas and lunged forward, falling headfirst into the fire. Immediately the pain in my stomach eased as the warm sensation of the tickling flames closed in around me. Outside the fire I heard people gasp and cry out in shock, fearful for my life but I didn't care, the comforting embrace of the tender flames kissing my skin was all I could think of as my strength returned, the charcoal logs like so many soft fluffy pillows on a bed. Rolling over onto my back, I stared up at the night sky as my body relaxed, enjoying the cozy feeling of warmth and rejuvenation. Moving to stand up, the fire pit then exploded upward as a pillar of flame spiraled up ten, twelve feet into the air, causing those around the camp to turn and look, some appearing shocked and afraid, others with looks of wonder, Chloe among them.

At last the fire settled back down to my knees and stepping out of the pit I stretched my arms and sighed contently, then wiped the powdery ash from my stomach, my wounds gone. Off in the distance I spotted Artemis watching me, the same troubled expression on her face, but at the moment I didn't care, I felt like a million bucks. Sighing, I took in the rest of the eyes watching me and smiling said, "Ah, that felt great. I guess that means it's time for questions huh?" Which was good, because I had plenty of my own to ask.

Off on the branch of a nearby tree Ellie just gave her little falcon laugh. _Now who's the show off hmm?_

* * *

Author's Notes:

Hello again everyone, hope you're enjoying the story so far. I should mention that this story originally came to me in a dream, and I have since fleshed it out a bit, doing plenty of research to back up my already extensive knowledge of Greek mythology. One thing you'll find more of in this story compared to my others is the use of etymology, basically the origins of words, and more often than not in this story, names. This of course includes name meanings, although this will not always be the case, but it might be a fun side game for some of you. An example would be Chloe, whose name is of Greek origin (surprised?) and means 'blooming'. In reference to demigods this becomes more interesting as the name can refer to a character's personality, or give hints at their godly origins. There are other reasons I may choose to give a certain demigod a name, but in most cases it's one of these two.

This chapter took longer than I'd planned in regards to the battle scene with the dragon, and as a result the chapter broke eight thousand words and still didn't get to the place I wanted to end it at. So we're two chapters in and I'm already behind. Well, I'll catch myself up eventually (yeah right).

Terms:

Gegenees: These are the six armed giants in the chapter. They're from a race of Mysian giants that fought with Jason and the Argonauts.

Not as many reviews as I had hoped, but I guess that just means there's room for improvement. I'll just have to try harder and hopefully those of you who read this will do so as well. R&R!


	3. Thalia Gets Burned

The Hunter's Bane: Chapter 3 – Thalia Gets Burned

By Leitbur

As it turned out, I didn't get around to asking most of my questions, mainly because Artemis had gone off to one of the tents and not returned. I'd taken a seat by the campfire, hands stretched out into the warm flames, waiting silently for her return, but Chloe, sitting next to me, had other plans.

"So I guess you don't burn either huh?"

Chuckling lightly I answered, "By that I guess you do?"

"Well yeah, it is _normal_ to be burned by fire."

A watched the dancing gold, red and orange in front of me. "Normal." How long had it been since that word had left my vocabulary, nothing in my life seemed normal anymore. "Nope, that's definitely not me, nothing normal about me."

Chloe continued to smile. "What else can you do?"

It was strangely a difficult question to answer. After all, while there were certainly a lot of things I could do, figuring out which among them was extraordinary, especially around a crowd of people like this, was tough. My abilities with fire certainly seemed to be unique, but what else? I had always been faster and stronger than the other kids at my numerous schools, but was that the same for all… half-bloods? That was another thing that was hard to wrap my mind around, the idea of having a god for a parent. I accepted the reality of gods existing just fine, coming face to face with someone like Artemis whose very presence felt beyond anything human I'd encountered made it easier, but that I had some parental connection to one of them…

Shrugging, I answered, "A few things I guess. What about you, I assume you're a… half blood?"

Chloe nodded. "Yeah, I actually just found out about three weeks ago when Nicholas here showed up at my dad's farm in Oklahoma."

Nicholas piped in, "Nice place Oklahoma, not many trees, but still lots of nature."

I ignored Nicholas as my thoughts were elsewhere. "You lived with your dad…" It was an envious thought, the idea that she had grown up with a real family. "So your mom, she…?"

"My god half?" Chloe inquired, raising an eyebrow. "Yeah, Demeter, goddess of agriculture. I have a stepmom too and a half-brother, they're pretty nice although my stepmom is very Christian so Nicholas showing up didn't sit well with her."

Nicholas frowned. "That's putting it nicely, when I showed you my hooves she grabbed screamed and attacked me with a broom. My hooves were clean, they weren't going to dirty up her floors. The nerve, calling me a demon."

Chloe laughed as she remembered the scene and I let my mind wrap around that. Actually I knew very little about this, Sharon had given me a book on Greek mythology to read years before, a difficult task with my dyslexia, but it had been strangely interesting. However the book had spent a lot of time focusing on Zeus, Poseidon and Hades, mentioning most of the others in less detail. I remembered the names pretty well, Ares, Aphrodite, Apollo, and so on, but other than a few small bits I doubted I could recite what their roles had been. Sharon had said she could get me more books about it if I were interested, but before she could the incident with the otter had occurred. "What can you do then?"

Chloe lowered her head, the smile fading from her face. "Nothing cool like you. I don't know, things just seem to grow a lot when I'm around. Dad always had a huge crop at harvest time, said I was his little miracle worker, but I had always thought it was because he was a good farmer. Then Nicholas showed up and I got the sign from my mom and well… I don't know, it's a bit hard to all take in."

I nodded. She was right, it didn't sound all that exciting, but our lives had been completely different from the sound of it. "Well I bet you never go hungry at least. Hunting down food is never all that easy."

Chloe stared at me for a moment. "Hunting…" The thought seemed to bother her. "Can't you just eat at home or something?"

Now it was my turn to frown. "I don't have a home." I then proceeded over the next half hour to explain what had happened, my travels over the last three years, and my frequent encounters with monsters. Nicholas, Kyle, the other girl and several of the Hunters listened in as well, the latter kept their distance and never met my face although it was pretty obvious they were listening in.

When I finished Chloe stared at me for a minute, her tear-filled eyes searching my face for some sign of deceit, like I had made the whole thing up. Finally she said, "You've been on your own in the woods for… three years?" She then threw her arms out and wrapped them around me, catching me by surprise. The shock sent a wave of fire through my veins that I fought to suppress lest I set the young girl on fire. "That's… that's so sad. And your mother or father never contacted you, never sent you a sign?"

Honestly I didn't even know what such a sign would look like, but they'd certainly never contacted me. "I don't think so."

"It certainly is disturbing." Nicholas added, his hands gripped in fists. "You said you're fourteen? This is not good."

"Could it just be an oversight?" Kyle asked. He'd inched further away from me during my story, the idea of living in the woods obviously not appealing to him.

"Maybe," Nicholas replied, his brow furrowed. "It's happened a few times before, half-bloods who don't get a sign until they arrive at camp, but they were all younger. He won't be happy."

My eyebrow cocked at that. "Who won't be happy?"

"Percy won't," a voice said from the outskirts of the campfire. Turning to look I watched Thalia step into the firelight, my backpack slung over her shoulder. Dropping it at my side, she made her way over to an empty spot and sat down. "I went and got your things, that should be everything. The site was pretty hard to find, it was surprising you were able to get to us so fast in the dark."

"Thanks. Yeah, well I had a bit of aerial guidance." I replied, motioning to Ellie who sat on a tree branch at the edge of the light from the fire. "I would have gone and gotten it."

Thalia shook her head. "No, last thing I need is you walking into camp from the forest, a sentry might pick you off by 'accident'." The way she said accident made me think she didn't quite believe that statement. "Anyway, like I said, Percy Jackson will be pissed. He's one of the head counselors at camp, well unofficially he's _the_ head counselor of the camp, not that you'll ever hear Gabriel acknowledge it, but that's a long story."

By this point Thalia had lost me completely. Camp? Head counselors, Gabriel? It was all Greek to me, which was a very fitting idiom I supposed. From the looks of those around me though they had understood at least some of what was being said. Chloe was continuing to lean against me, her eyes closed and a smile on her face which seemed to bother the Hunters quite a bit. Chloe though obviously didn't notice or care, simply muttering, "Wow, you're so warm, like a cozy blanket." Thalia seemed to be ignoring it though.

Frowning, I said, "So, um, why would this Percy be pissed?"

Thalia paused and gazed into the fire as if she were searching it for some way to answer. Finally she said, "It's a long story but about five years ago there was a war between the gods and the titans. Percy, along with Annabeth, myself, and a group of campers and Hunters defended New York and Olympus from Kronus's army, and the gods offered him any gift he wished in return. He asked that from now on that they claim all their children before the child's thirteenth birthday. You see before that sometimes half-bloods would be claimed, sometimes not, and it caused a lot of problems during the war, Kronus recruited a lot of the unclaimed ones, so Percy had them swear on the River Styx to claim all of them from now on so they could be brought to camp."

"But I'm fourteen."

Thalia nodded. "You see the problem, and why Percy will be upset. I doubt my dad will be happy either."

"Unless he's the who broke his oath." One of the Hunters I didn't recognize added in. I expected to see Thalia step up to defend her father, but she just nodded thoughtfully as if it was no big deal.

It seemed strange to me, but maybe all half-bloods kept a bit of emotional distance from their godly parent. After all, if my parent, whichever one it was, hadn't taken the time to even send a sign, it was likely a few and far between relationship for the others too. Still I was curious. "So, who's your father?"

"Zeus." Thalia turned her head away slightly as she answered, thunder echoing ominously above us, as if her saying the name had invoked it. Zeus was a god I recognized, it was kind of hard to forget the ruler of Olympus, the sky god who had lightning bolts in his arsenal. Thinking back I recalled the flash of electricity Thalia had in her eyes right before she'd shot that blinding arrow at the dragon; that explained that, she was an electric girl.

"So, is everyone here a half-blood then?"

"Hardly, _boy_." I looked over at the Hunter who had commented previously and frowned, but she didn't seem all that interested in continuing.

Thalia gave the girl a hard glare and then continued, "Lady Artemis takes any willing girl, whether she's a half-blood, nymph, a mortal, anyone. Tessa over there is mortal… as was Candice."

That closed my mouth up quickly enough. Despite Thalia's arguments earlier the fact was that Melanie had been correct, the sudden wall of fire I'd erected during the battle had likely led to Candice's death. While it was easy to just say that it was for the greater good, by doing it only one person had died instead of who knew how many if those giants had joined in the carnage there was really no way to know how things would have played out. A sadness hung in the air, and it cooled the burning heat in my chest; I'd never been responsible for someone's death before, even by accident. When I was younger I'd caused numerous burns, bruises, broken bones and other injuries along with a great deal of property damage, but never had a life been lost due to my actions. I was finding it to be a sobering experience, and not at all pleasant.

Off in the distance a wolf howled, followed by another in the other direction, and then a third and a fourth. A few moments later and the sound of multiple feet treading along the ground nearby in the woods caught my ear, and shifting slightly, I reached for my one remaining blade, my eyes on the tree-line. Catching my sudden movement, Thalia watched my scanning eyes for a moment, following them to the tree-line, her breath held as the footsteps rapidly grew closer and louder. Then, she exhaled. "It's ok, they're with us, must of have finished sweeping the perimeter already.

Eyeing Thalia uncertainly, I loosened my grip on the blade hilt, waiting as the sound continued to come closer, joined suddenly by another pair to the north, and others in other directions, my heart beating away with the seconds. At last movement in the brush drew in my gaze, and out from the bushes a pair of large, gray-white wolves emerged one after the other and turned their heads toward the campfire. Off to the north the sound of another approaching pair arose, followed a few seconds later by two more sets in other directions. Before I knew it there were eight timber wolves trotting around the outskirts of the camp, the Hunters paying them no heed as if it were the most natural thing in the world. Waiting a few seconds longer to be sure, at last I released the hilt of my blade and returned my attention to the fire.

Leaning against my shoulder a soft snore emerged from Chloe, her face angelic in the firelight as she slept, and unable to help myself, I smiled too. _Hmph, getting all comfy with the ladies are you?_

Frowning contemptuously, I lifted my eyes up to the tree branches and shook my head. "Stop getting jealous Ellie, she's just tired."

_I am _not_ jealous!_

"Whatever."

Watching from her seat, Thalia's eyes moved back and forth between Ellie and me. At last she said, "You can talk to that falcon?"

Blinking at the sudden question, I turned my attention back to Thalia. "Ellie? Yeah, I've always been able to, why?"

Pausing a moment, Thalia finally answered, "It's nothing… probably." Her face looked troubled.

_Ooh, I think she's envious Will. Not that I blame her, who wouldn't want to talk to such an amazing creature as myself. I am the fastest being alive after all._

Sighing, I just shook my head. From the sound of it Thalia couldn't hear Ellie talk, or else Ellie simply hadn't deigned to speak to her. It was puzzling, the things I was able to do that others couldn't, even amongst what amounted to my fellow half-bloods. Of course perhaps Ellie could only talk to one person at a time, I had no expertise in this matter, and the presence of the wolves suggested that at least some of the Hunters could communicate with them.

Of more ominous concern was Thalia's answer to my last question, as if she knew something she wasn't telling me. In truth there was likely a great many things she hadn't told me, this half-blood world sounded big, old, and complex, far too much information for a simple campfire conversation, but that still didn't answer her troubled expression. "Thalia," I asked finally, "do you know which god is my parent?"

"Hmm?" She replied, lifting her head up out of her thoughts. "Oh, um no William-"

"Will." I corrected.

"Will," she said with a nod, "I don't know which god your mother or father is, and while I could probably come up with one or two guesses, there's no way to tell, especially in this case."

My brow contorted. "What do you mean?"

Taking a breath, Thalia answered, "I mean I've never met anyone like you before, with your abilities. I've seen kids who can't be burned, or that can talk to certain animals, even shoot a bow like you did, but the way you throw and manipulate fire like that, the way it heals you, the way you heard the wolves coming, your pet falcon-"

"She's not my pet."

_Damn right, the way I take care of you, it should be the other way around._

"Hey!" I snapped, flinging a pebble off in her direction and missing by a fair bit. Chloe shifted slightly but continued to sleep.

_Just saying._

Blinking at the sudden commotion, Thalia shook her head and continued. "Anyway, I've seen certain pieces before, but all of it combined the way you are, never. It's frustrating, especially since for the most part even the options I can think of don't really fit. If you'd been blessed by another god it might make more sense, but you didn't even know gods existed so that seems unlikely. I just don't know." She sighed, fatigue starting to creep onto her brow. From her appearance she didn't look more than a year or so older than me, but she talked like an adult, as if she'd been bearing a great deal of weight for a long time. Maybe half-bloods were like that though. At last she muttered, "Maybe Chiron will have a better idea, he knows a lot more than I do."

I nodded but didn't reply. The name sounded familiar, but for the life of me I couldn't think of why. Still, glancing up at the sky I could tell how late the hour was becoming. It was past midnight now, about 12:20 AM give or take, and death matches with fire-breathing lizards were pretty exhausting. Assuming all of this didn't just disappear in the morning there'd be time for more questions, and I suspected that Artemis intended to get her answers from me too.

Gazing down at Chloe asleep on my shoulder I gave her a light pat on the head and exhaled deeply, my eyes watching as the campfire danced before me.

Standing by a large window that looked down upon some major city, I stared out at the skyline. The only large city I'd ever been in was Chicago, and never this high up before. Still, I was certain that this was not Chicago, the buildings looked different, and the water that seemed to go on forever in the distance was far greater than Lake Michigan.

Then I saw it, the fixture I'd seen in numerous movies and pictures before, a highly recognizable symbol in the distance, the Empire State Building. I was in New York, how I'd gotten here I wasn't sure, but that building was unmistakable. High above it thunderclouds were beginning to form, a storm was rolling in. Lightning crackled here and there occasionally but it was hard to tell which direction the storm was moving, it seemed to just be sitting there.

Turning my gaze away from the window, I took in the room's surroundings. Ok, room didn't properly describe the massive expanse I found myself standing in, more like an entire floor of a building, but the arrangement of furniture suggested that someone did indeed live here. All around the room easels with canvas's of varying sizes dotted the place, other canvas's leaned against walls and furniture, the few whose images were visible depicting strange landscapes and scenes that appeared to come out of some action movie.

Then I heard it, the light hum of someone following the melody of a song, and looking across the room I spotted a pair of feet hanging down from behind an easel. They were girl's feet, whose I didn't know but the form they took along with the painted toenails were a good sign. This must have been the resident artist.

Making my way over, sidestepping several opened sketchbooks with sketches of various faces in them, I came around to the other side of the easel and froze. Sitting on a stool with a paintbrush in hand and an IPod and headset blaring, was a beautiful young woman with shoulder length red hair. Her eyes, which were intently focused on the canvas in front of her, were a piercing green, the same color the outer half of mine were, yet they were as deep as staring into an eternal abyss. She was older than I was, probably late teens to early twenties, but despite her good looks she seemed quite casual, as if she wasn't really trying. Her clothes were certainly plain, a white t-shirt and a faded pair of jeans, both stained here and there with blotches of paint.

I moved to apologize for intruding, but she paid no attention as if I weren't even there and continued to paint. Puzzled, I turned to look at what she was working on and gasped. While the painting wasn't quite finished, small details around the edges still obscured and blank, the central image depicted an incredible night-time view of a vast mountain-top city, a strange yet lovely mixture of ancient and modern designs that flowed all about the mountain complex, numerous paths littered with statues, monuments, fountains and springs, tiny people moving along them. At the peak stood an immense palace, an assortment of large, shadowy figures standing between an arrangement of pillars gazing down at the miniscule figure of a person falling from the summit headfirst as if he'd been thrown off. Between the palace and the falling individual a weird red and blue streak slashed down the mountainside toward the person like the exhaust tail of an airplane. It was magnificent and yet I wasn't quite sure what to make of it; the whole thing was just overwhelming to try and take in at once.

Pausing, the girl flicked a switch on her IPod and stared at the painting now as if for the first time. Frowning, her brow furrowed as she muttered, "Not good, this is really not good. It doesn't make sense though."

I didn't know what she was talking about, it appeared to be an amazing piece of work to me, but I wasn't very artistic either. I said as much, but she didn't seem to hear me, instead setting her brush and palette aside and rising to her feet made her way over to another stack of paintings. Following her over, I watched as she flipped through one after another, finally stopping about halfway through and lifting one out, setting it back on an empty easel to look at it properly.

Gazing over her shoulder, my jaw dropped in shock. The painting depicted me in my battle against the dragon, the moment before I'd fired the arrow that had killed it. The way it was depicted the figure's face was obscured, only slightly visible, but the pose, not to mention the dragon and the surrounding flames all around the periphery of the painting, it left no doubt in my mind that it was me. Looking down at this girl, I couldn't understand it, how had she known, she couldn't have been there, the battle had just happened in Ohio and here we were in New York. The paint was dried, this was not a recent painting, it had been done some time ago, especially given its position in the pile, yet it was plain as day.

Placing her finger below her lip as if scrutinizing the painting, the red-headed girl sighed and took out the ear pieces to her headset. "This one… maybe Percy will have an idea, or Chiron." Her statement, obviously to herself, caught me off guard. Yet the names were clear to me, especially the first; this girl must know Percy Jackson, the hero that Thalia had mentioned.

A knock at the door cut the girl's thoughts short, as well as my own, as she frowned at the unwelcome sound. "Who is it?"

"It's me," a deep male voice replied, "may I come in?"

The girl hesitated for a moment, glancing about the room as if checking to make sure that nothing inappropriate were in view, then said, "Sure, come in."

The door opened and in stepped a tall, middle-aged man with dark, rust colored hair that had begun to gray in a few spots, especially around his temples. The bit of gray might have made him look a bit more dignified if he wasn't wearing a pair of dark green pajamas, the letters W D monogrammed on them. I didn't need the initials though to tell that this man thought that he was extremely important, I'd seen that expression on the faces of principals just before they were going to give a speech that was 'for my own good.' Just the thought made my blood simmer.

Strolling into the room a bit, his eyes scanning about, taking in the drawings that were scattered here and there with a look of slight dismay, the man finally turned to face the girl fully and said, "You didn't come to dinner tonight, our guests missed you."

The girl rolled her eyes. "Please Dad, I'm not interested in that Dalton kid, or the Richmond's, Sorelli's, Bennet's, any of them." The way she said it gave the distinct impression that this was not the first time they'd had this discussion.

The girl's father stood there quietly, watching his daughter with a calm expression; I got the sense that very little fazed him. "Rachel, James Dalton is a wonderful young man from a good family and they were very much looking forward to seeing you. To not show up..."

"You mean he's rich," Rachel interjected, contempt in her voice. "Look Dad, I've told you this before, I'm not interested so please stop trying to play matchmaker, I don't need your help."

Exhaling deeply, the man moved further into the room, glancing down at the sketchbooks and frowning at the face in one of them, Rachel's father replied, "Rachel, I'm worried about you, your mother too. I've let you indulge this... artistic nature of yours," waving his hand across the room, "and I can see you're quite talented at it. But some of the people you associate with, that boy for instance-"

"Don't bring Percy into this Dad, he has nothing to do with it."

"You haven't been dating anyone since him. I understand that rejection can hurt but-"

"I told you," Rachel interrupted again, "_I_ broke up with _him!_ Besides, how would you know the last time I was on a date, you're never around!"

"Well then, have you?" her father replied. Rachel turned her head away and her dad smiled. I could see where this was going, this whole conversation had been planned out to lead where he wanted it to go, and it irked me to see someone as smug as he appeared to be succeeding. How many principals had given me similar speeches, you need to make friends, it's important to respect your teachers, it may not make sense now but one day you'll be thankful for all of this... it just went on and on, and seeing it being done to another made me want to reduce the man to cinders.

Turning and making his way toward the window, gazing down at the skyline as if he were a king looking out over his kingdom, Rachel's father continued, "I've arranged for you to start seeing a grief counselor."

Counseling, I'd heard that before too and my body shok in anger, but for whatever reason my powers refused to answer anymore than my voice could reach them. Thus I was forced to watch on helplessly as Rachel's eyes narrowed, he teeth grinding together. "I don't need counseling Dad, there's nothing wrong with me."

"Then consider it a precaution, a pre-emptive strike before things do start to go wrong. Dr. Vale has agreed to keep things discreet, he'll be coming here to talk with you, think of it like chatting with one of your... friends."

Rachel's fists were clenched tightly together now but I got the sense that she knew she was losing the fight. That didn't stop her from speaking her mind however. "Discreet, you mean so that the good families you're talking about don't think I'm a mental case!" It really wasn't a question.

Pausing as if to take in this new point, Rachel's father turned to face her and took in the scene. At last he answered, "As I said, your mother and I are concerned, and while you may not like it I do have to think of this family too, as should you. Can you not think about that? What about our family Rachel?"

Suddenly Rachel's eyes bulged in shock and she doubled over as if somebody had punched her in the gut, panic on her face. Then she snapped back up, her face calm and serene except for her eyes which were glowing bright green. Instead it was her father who now looked on with panic on his face, for the first time not being sure of what to say or do. All he could do was watch as Rachel began to speak back to him, her voice in triplicate.

Waking up with a start, I snapped up into a sitting position, my breathing heightened as I tried to wrap my mind around what had just happened. It had been a dream, and yet it had been so vivid, so realistic that I had to take a good long moment to make sure that I was indeed awake now. Glancing around, I saw the Hunter's camp, or what was left of it as the girls were busy packing things up. The fire next to me was charcoaled embers now, a slight glow still emanating from the core of the pit. Chloe, who I remembered had been sleeping against my shoulder was nowhere to be seen, nor for that matter were Thalia, Nicholas, or the other half-bloods that had been traveling with him.

Stretching my neck, I rolled over and up to my feet, and looking back down I was glad Chloe had not remained there as the grass I'd been sleeping on was now nothing more than powdered ash, another sign that it had just been a bad dream. The moon was still high in the night sky, and reaching for my pack I called out with my mind. _Ellie, what's going on?_

Her voice answered back in my mind. _They just started packing up about ten minutes or so ago. The satyr and the others headed for the group of tents to the east about twenty minutes before that_.

"Thanks." I answered, flipping my pack over my right shoulder and turning my gaze to the only tents that had not yet been touched. A streak of blue caught my peripheral vision, a slight gust of wind hit my face, and then Ellie was perched on my left shoulder, her talons gripping tightly causing me to grimace in discomfort as the last lingering effects of sleep left my body. "Tagging along?"

Ellie lifted her beak up slightly. _Of course_.

Making my way off toward the tents now, my eyes scanned the rest of the campground, spotting Hunters here and there, each casting me a nasty glare as I moved toward the remaining tents. On the outskirts I spotted one of the wolves who watched me pass by silently, although there was no anger or contempt in its eyes.

Up ahead, the flap of one of the tents opened up and out stepped Thalia, immediately turning her eyes in my direction and with a slight smile began making her way over toward me. It seemed strange how much nicer Thalia was to me compared to her fellow Hunters, but I wasn't about to complain either; in a camp full of boy-hating girls it was nice to have at least one ally. As we converged she stopped and said, "Thought I might have to wake you."

"Sorry," I replied, "maybe next time."

Thalia rolled her eyes, her smile fading slightly. Why she'd reacted that way didn't make much sense to me, but she continued a moment later as if nothing had happened. "Lady Artemis wishes to speak to you, this way."

I nodded and shifted my course to follow behind Thalia toward the tent she'd just exited. Something seemed off, the way she'd said that last part, like she were leading me to the execution scaffold. Then it occurred to me, I was on my way to meet a goddess who did not like boys all that much and my words from a moment ago hit me in a new light; maybe Thalia didn't think there was going to be a 'next time'.

Stepping into the tent I saw immediately that Artemis and I had at least one thing in common; we both liked to keep trophies of the things we killed. While my trophies hung off a string on my belt pathetically, Artemis's trophies covered the walls of the tent, bears, tigers, lions, and a few more that I didn't know off the top of my head. Off in the corner on one of the many silk rugs a shimmering deer with silver horns slept next to a pile of pillows. A polished oak display stand rested behind the goddess, a large silver bow shaped like gazelle horns hanging on it. In the center of the room a brazier sat with a smokeless flame burning in it, a flame so lovely and alluring that my eyes seemed drawn to it, unable to look away until Ellie once again squeezed my shoulder with her talons snapping me out of it.

Scanning the room I spotted Nicholas, Chloe, and Kyle standing off to one side, a pair of Hunters, Melanie and one I didn't recognize off on the other side. In the center of the tent the third half-blood, the girl whose name I hadn't caught, was kneeling before the goddess, saying something about turning her back on men and swearing eternal maidenhood. A moment later Artemis said, "I accept." and for a moment I could have sworn I saw a silvery glow illuminate the girl, but then it was gone. Perhaps I was still a bit tired from waking up, but my gut told me I had just witnessed something important.

Artemis smiled down affectionately at the girl, then lifted her moonlight eyes up to Thalia and myself. She looked now as she had when I saw her earlier, about fourteen years old, but there was a far greater sense of authority to her now than there had been previously. Then again, I was in her inner sanctum at the moment.

The goddess stared at me now as if peering through my soul, a rather unnerving feeling really and the thought that it might be true only added to it. There was something troubling there too though, as if she were searching for an elusive answer that just refused to surface. At last she turned her gaze back to the girl and said, "Now Amanda, go stand with your sisters." That's when it hit me what that had all been about, Amanda had just joined the Hunters.

"William Hunt…" she said as if testing some strange new food that she was trying for the first time, "thank you for joining us."

Thalia stepped to the side so that the goddess could see me fully, either that or she was stepping out of the line of fire. On my shoulder Ellie's head moved forward ever so slightly, her eyes fixed on Artemis; ready should trouble break out. It was comforting really to know that my friend was so loyal, ready to fight to defend me, not that I thought either of us had much of a chance against a goddess, but it was still reassuring.

The gathered ensemble watched me and it suddenly occurred to me that they were waiting for me to reply. I had never been much for elegant words, and I had a feeling that with a goddess I ought to be speaking respectfully, but my mind right then was drawing a complete blank. Finally I said, "Um, no problem… um ma'am." Hopefully it didn't sound quite as pathetic to her as it did to me, still I set my feet, prepared for… whatever it was that gods used to smite foolish half-bloods.

As if sensing my concerns, Artemis smiled and said, "Don't worry boy, I won't harm you."

_No_, Ellie said coldly, _she'll just turn you into a deer and let the wolves do the harming._

My eyes turned to watch Ellie out of the corner of my gaze, partly due to the scenario she'd just suggested and partly because I had the a strong feeling that Artemis could hear her. The latter was only confirmed when Artemis continued, "Peace swift one, that is not my intention. Quite the opposite actually, it appears I must thank this boy for coming to the aid of my Hunters."

To my right I heard Melanie mutter under her breath, "Not that we asked for it."

The goddess ignored her though and went on, "I cannot stay for long, Lord Zeus has called an emergency meeting of the gods to discuss something of concern, however I believe we have a little time. My lieutenant, along with Chloe and the satyr, have informed me both of what happened and about your peculiar situation William. Thalia says that you are fourteen?"

While I was relieved by the news that I wasn't going to be killed or otherwise transformed, it was still difficult to speak to Artemis, even if she did look no older than myself. "Yes ma'am. It's not always easy to keep track of the days of the week, but it has been three years."

The goddess nodded. "I see, most disturbing indeed, as are your… attributes." Off in the distance thunder rumbled, and Artemis lifted her gaze momentarily toward the sky. "It would appear our time together must be shorter than I had thought William Hunt, my father grows impatient."

Turning to Thalia, Artemis then said, "Thalia, you are to meet up with Phoebe as planned and then escort William and rest to Camp Half-Blood." A moan came from the pair of Hunters on my right, apparently they didn't like this camp very much. "You are to stay there until I come for you, Dionysus will see to it that there is no trouble… this time. Before you leave though, be sure to take care of Candice."

Thalia bowed. "Yes my Lady."

Nodding, Artemis returned her gaze to me. "Though it will be off topic, you have done me a service boy, and so in appreciation I will bring the matter of your not being claimed before the council. Now, one last thing." She lifted her hand and suddenly a bow and quiver appeared, hovering silently in the air. Taking hold of them, Artemis said, "You may recognize this bow William, given that you used it not too long ago."

My throat tightened. "Candice's bow."

"Correct," Artemis confirmed. "I understand you made good use of it."

I shook my head. "It was just a lucky shot, I've never even used one of those before."

The goddess seemed to stiffen. "Never?" From the expressions on the rest of the Hunters' faces it appeared that they too were equally surprised. Recovering quickly, the goddess continued, "Interesting indeed. Regardless, I have discussed the matter with Thalia and given that you were able to save the lives of my Hunters, along with the proficiency you have shown with it, I think it appropriate that you should have it."

I was dumbfounded, and I was not the only one. Melanie burst out, "But my Lady, he's not a Hunter, he's not even a girl!"

Artemis turned her head to gaze at Melanie. "Sadly this is true, quite a shame really, I suspect he would have done well as part of the Hunt, yet the service he has done for me is great, and calls to be rewarded. Do you deny the boy is deserving of reward?"

Melanie looked away for a moment, obviously distraught, then turned to glare at me with pure hate in her eyes. "No my Lady."

Smiling nervously, I interjected, "Um, look, I don't want to cause any trouble here. Like I said, I never even used a bow before that, so perhaps it'd be better if I didn't take it."

Artemis returned her gaze to me, one eyebrow cocking up in surprise and it suddenly occurred to me that perhaps refusing a gift from a god was worse than getting pulled into the trouble that accepting it would cause. Before the goddess could respond however Thalia placed her hand on my right shoulder and as I looked over at her she said, "It's all right Will, there's no problem. If Lady Artemis thinks it best that you have the bow, then we will not complain. If it helps, think of it as holding onto it and keeping it safe for us, who knows, maybe you'll find you like it."

Keeping it safe… yeah, I could do that. Nodding to Thalia, I turned, reached out and took the bow and quiver from Artemis's hand. Inside the quiver a dozen or so arrows rested, each one with a silver tint to them. Sliding my arm through the strap, I flipped the quiver up onto my right shoulder over my pack, I wasn't really sure what to do with the bow.

Nodding to me in approval, Artemis then said, "Now I must depart. You are intriguing William Hunt, at least for a boy anyway. I'm sure we shall meet again." And with that, she was gone.

It turned out that what Artemis had meant by 'taking care of Candice' was to perform the funeral rites. It was unlike the type of ceremonies I'd seen in the movies, a large pyre had been hastily constructed on top of which Candice's body had been set, draped in a silver shroud with a bow and deer antlers logo on it. It had taken them a minute to get the fire going, something I would have been happy to help with, but Ellie had suggested that this was probably something they needed to do alone.

The trip east was not exactly pleasant, particularly given about three hours in when three hours into the trip we met up with Phoebe and the fifteen other Hunters she had with her. Apparently there had been more monsters than the five Thalia and her group had cornered, and the hunting party had chosen to split up to catch them all. It also explained why Artemis had been absent at the battle, she'd gone with the other group, trusting the rest to Thalia.

Several of the newcomers had falcons of their own, and I had figured Ellie would want to go off with them, but she seemed to have no such interest. _They may be falcons, but only two of them are peregrines and they're still not as fast as _I_ am. Besides, my feathers are a nicer shade of blue._

"I'm not as fast as you are either you know." I'd reminded her.

_Yes, and I forgive you._

Instead Ellie had decided to fly farther ahead and scout, although I suspected it was just to show off how much better she was to the other falcons. I'd actually tried to talk to one of them but before it could reply Ellie screamed in my head, _Don't you try talking to other falcons behind my back, you two-faced arsonist!_ The falcon hadn't seemed all that interested in talking to me anyway, so I decided to abandon that idea, angering Ellie I had learned was not a smart thing to do.

In the end I spent most of the time talking to Chloe and Nicholas at the back of the procession as even with his shoes off Nicholas was not overly fast. He explained a bit about camp, such as that there were cabins for each god and some of the different activities and training that went on there, some of which sounded better than others. Chloe certainly seemed excited by all of it, but I wasn't so sure; the fact that I didn't know what cabin was mine, and what that might mean, factored heavily on my mind.

Talking to Chloe was a bit more fun, but still a bit awkward. I hadn't really thought about it, but other than Ellie I hadn't really talked to anyone in three years until the previous night, and my social skills had never really been all that good to begin with. Several times I'd almost asked her why she'd chosen not to join Amanda on the Hunt, but I'd decided not to; it was after all a personal question. Instead I'd let her go on about life on the farm, the different crops, the animals, all of it. It didn't sound all that appealing to me, and while I'd never really considered Demeter as my god parent before that, I was even more convinced it was someone else now.

At one point Chloe had asked me how I could survive in the forest for so long, like fighting all the monsters and dealing with all the mosquitoes. She'd found it quite cool when I demonstrated by letting a light flame run down my arm, that mosquitoes were not a problem for me.

I'd noticed that several of the Hunters would head on ahead at times, likely scouting out the area for trouble or anything else of interest. Frankly I'd have preferred to join them, running through the forest again, alone and free, it was certainly an appealing idea, but Thalia had been right, the trip back might be risky. Twice Ellie had suggested I head out and forget the return trip, that the two of us had been just fine on our own and would be again, but I wasn't interested. Despite some of my reservations about it, this camp seemed to hold the best chance to finding out who I was, where I'd come from, and why I was the way I was. I'd given up on those questions years before as there seemed no way to find out, but now I had a lead, and a chance to answer the questions I'd wondered my whole life, the questions of who and why I was, it was too alluring to pass up.

On the second day of our trip we caught a break, the scouts had come back with news, and fifteen minutes later we found parked on a dirt road at the edge of the forest's tree-line a large silver bus with a deer logo plastered on the side. Inside there was plenty of room for everyone, the keys dangling from the ignition.

Piling in, the Hunter named Phoebe sat down in the driver's seat and started up the bus. I was surprised that Thalia wasn't the driver, but Thalia didn't seem to mind, muttering something about bad experiences with buses. I sat in the very back with Chloe, Nicholas and Kyle, sitting next to one of the Hunters didn't seem like that good of an idea, especially with Candice's bow strapped to my pack. The bows of the other Hunters were nowhere to be seen, and while I was curious as to where they'd disappeared to the girls hadn't offered to explain it to me, and it seemed a bad time to inquire. I'd just have to ask Thalia about it after we arrived at camp.

I hadn't spent much time out of the woods in the last few years, especially in the daytime, I'd forgotten how bright the open air could be, how noisy the sound of running engines were, the lack of color on the surrounding roads. Thankfully several hours in I dosed off.

How long I slept I didn't know, but finally I was shook awake by Chloe who was lucky she hadn't gripped me tighter or else out of surprise I might have set her on fire; waking me up was never the safest thing to do.

As we filed out of the bus I looked up at the hill we'd parked next to and froze, my hand darting to my blade a moment later as I gazed at the sleeping dragon lying at the top of the hill under the shade of a pine tree. Before I could draw it though a hand grabbed my arm. "It's all right that's… AHH!"

Turning my head as the hand released me, I loosened my grip on the hilt of my blade as I saw Thalia falling back a couple steps, shaking her hand and wincing in pain. My thoughts about the danger of waking me up being dangerous guiltily rushed back into my head; startling me wasn't very smart either. "Umm, sorry Thalia, you startled me."

Inhaling through her teeth, Thalia grimaced and glared at me. "Yeah, well anyway, that's just Peleus, he guards the hill, he won't bother us."

"Oh." I replied sheepishly, wondering why Nicholas had failed to mention that piece of information.

Sheathing my blade, I gazed at the hill once more then began to make my way up it, not waiting for the rest of the group. Behind me several voices called for me to hold up, but I didn't care, over that hill was the answers I sought, and more importantly there was something new to see on the other side, an obstacle to overcome.

Reaching the summit I passed by the dragon who opened an eye for a moment, then closed it again seemingly satisfied with what he saw. Ellie landed on a branch of the pine tree and stared down with me at the valley below. A large farmhouse rested at the bottom of the valley, and back behind it numerous other structures appeared scattered about, some obscured by trees and other things. A clearing filled with numerous long tables filled part of the valley floor. Off in the distance I spotted the ocean heading out to the horizon. Several pairs of feet scurried up behind me, and moving to my side Chloe stared down and said, "Ooh look, strawberry fields!"

"Yes," Thalia agreed, gazing down at the valley, "welcome to Camp Half-Blood."

Author's Notes:

It's been a little longer to get this chapter out, my life has been quite hectic the last couple of months, and I'm trying to write both this story and my other one at the same time, so delays are going to happen. I do intend to continue this story, so don't give up hope.

This chapter was tricky in that there were several conversations and scenes that required a delicate touch to get right, namely the dream with Rachel and the conversation with Artemis, the latter especially being tough. Again the chapter ran over eight thousand words mainly so I could fit everything I wanted in without falling further behind my planned schedule.

Next chapter we'll be exploring Camp Half-Blood and meeting some more of the characters from the books, including one Percy Jackson.

Reviews are up from the last chapter, but I'd still like to see some more. They do inspire me to write faster. R&R!


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